Dodge

Back to route 50 at Dodge and did the first tourist thing on the trip. Visited a recreation of Dodge when it was the wildest town in the West. It was once the furthest point the railway reached and to here all the Texas cowboys drove their cattle for transport to market. The ingredients for trouble were in place when they arrived. Men who had been in the saddle for weeks, 3 months of pay in their hands, whisky and beer, women, gambling and guns. It's no wonder so many found them selves buried in a shallow grave on Boot Hill (it was called that because many were buried in their boots).

The museum reminded me of things learned in school but forgotten. For some reasons the native Americans weren't happy about a bunch of strangers moving into their country and using their trails so, quite reasonably, they tried to fight off the intruders. The white man's response? Murder all the animals on whom the tribes relied for food. Millions of buffalo were killed bringing the animals to near extinction, and the Indians to heel.

I think most 'Americans' have forgotten that they are all immigrants and it's only the original occupants who have the real right to talk of their ownership of the land. Reading the Indian philosophy is a stark contrast to the repressive religion and way of life imposed by the Europeans.